Eye On: Caitlin Conant, Political Director for CBS News
Jul 17, 2020
"Working remotely does provide challenges, and I think everyone is hopeful that they’ll be back in the field ahead of Election Day."
Eye On is a Q&A series that spotlights CBS television executives and creatives.
After years behind the scenes of political campaigns in Washington, D.C., Caitlin Conant joined CBS News in 2016, as a communications director working for Face the Nation. She quickly received what she describes as "a master class in journalism" from then-host John Dickerson, executive producer Mary Hager, and the rest of the team during a whirlwind election year, and fell in love with the thrill of breaking news. She was offered the job of political director the day she found out she was pregnant with her son, Connor, and knew she was signing up for a challenging few years – she would be on the editorial side for the first time in her career, she had to build a political unit from scratch, and she was a new mom, all at once. This year’s unprecedented campaign brought even more to the plate, with a global pandemic keeping her team at home and worldwide protests exposing systemic inequality and racial injustice.
ViacomCBS spoke to Conant about what makes her team stand above the rest, how they've been adjusting to an ever-changing political climate, and how important human relationships are to both politics and news.
How did the coronavirus and the Black Lives Matter protests affect your team’s coverage of the 2020 election?
Our political unit is focused on telling the story of where the country is now, what issues have been revealed, what fissures have been exacerbated, and what actions voters want the government to take moving forward. In doing so, we need to make sure that we’re hearing from people from all walks of life, backgrounds, and races, and giving voice to people and issues that we don’t always hear about.
"There are some things that simply can’t be replicated from the comfort of your couch."
Our reporters have a two-fold mission: one, to report on how the campaigns are adjusting plans, reaching voters, and being creative, as well as how the states are dealing with voting amid a pandemic, with issues of voting access and suppression as a key focus; and two, to talk to battleground state voters to see how coronavirus has shaped their lives and their political opinions ahead of Election Day. We started chronicling this reporting in our new biweekly CBS News COVID Chronicles series.
But, working remotely does provide challenges, and I think everyone is hopeful that they’ll be back in the field ahead of Election Day. There are some things that simply can’t be replicated from the comfort of your couch – you risk missing the moments of catching a candidate in an unguarded moment and interacting with people who show you a different perspective.
What are some of the qualities that make a good political embed reporter?
Our campaign reporters all truly enjoy and understand politics. They are intellectually curious and entrepreneurial; they are good writers; they work as a team; they have a healthy competitive spirit and want to break news; they take a holistic and balanced approach and strive to provide context in their reporting; they are good listeners who are interested in telling voters’ stories; they are self-starters who treat no task as too big or too small; and most importantly, they understand that this is an industry built on relationships.
These qualities really came to light the night of the Iowa caucus in early February. As the night crept on without results, it dawned on everyone pretty quickly that something was amiss. The network needed information about what was happening and why there was no announced winner in the first contest of the 2020 democratic presidential primary, and they needed it fast. That’s when Adam Brewster and Musadiq Bidar – our two reporters who had been embedded in Iowa – saved the day. The relationships they had built over the course of their eight months living in Iowa were on full display, as they hit the phones, speaking with precinct chairs across the state and gathering nuggets of information about what was really happening that night for the entire news division. Looking back on it, that very strange, resultless night in Iowa should have been the first sign that 2020 was going to be a year like no other.
Can a political director ever unplug? If so, what do you in that down time?
It’s hard, but unplugging every now and then is more important now than ever, when it’s easy to just sit in front of your laptop all day. Pre-coronavirus, I used to try to hang out with my friends, many of whom don’t work in politics or media. Nowadays I embrace the moments in between Zooms when I get to be with my husband, Alex, son, Connor, and my dog, Minnie; I try to work out every day; I read fiction (mostly thrillers); and yes, I watch Bravo. If you ever wonder how our political discourse got to this point, look no further than The Real Housewives.
Are there any lessons you learned from working in politics that you still find helpful?
Having good relationships with the reporters covering your boss was key because you both have a job to do; it’s just opposite sides of the same coin. I fondly remember the reporters who met with me just to get to know me, with no ask or agenda (I’m looking at you, Ed O’Keefe circa 2011!); who offered kind words or a drink when a candidate lost a campaign and I was unemployed; or who just treated me with respect even when we disagreed about something or I couldn’t get them what they wanted. This is a human business, and given the current environment, it’s tempting to lose sight of that.
